Digimon Zero
by Gamekrazy
Summary: In the city of Los Angeles, with so many different types of people, it is hard for one NOT to be an individual. However Leo, a misfit millionaire, is about to discover the world of Channel Zero, and find being an individual to be quite a hazard... R&R plz


Leonard walked the bustling night streets of Los Angeles alone. The night wind blew through the city, against his face and rustling his, short, messy, blonde hair as the city celebrated the end of the year 2008, and began to welcome 2009. The people in the streets were socializing. Couples could be seen holding hands, enjoying their evening together, and the restaurants on the side of the busy street were full of people having a merry time, friends meeting to share the last moments of the year with the ones they cared about. Leo, however, was alone.

Wearing his white jacket unzipped over his grey undershirt, with a pair of blue jeans to combat the cold, he walked. He had seen no point in spending the evening at the mansion. All of the servants had left to be with their own loved ones, leaving him alone, though their presence seemed not to give the place any more life anyway. It had been roughly two years since he had met his father, since he had been pulled out of his dead-end life and had been given a world of luxury, but still life felt boring, repetitive, and somewhat… lonely. The city seemed anything but. Not only did the people seem full of life, the city itself seemed to be alive, its vibrant lights celebrating its existence, and seeming to outshine the stars themselves.

The pedestrians began to get excited. Looking up, Leo saw the crowd of people gravitating towards the window of a television store, the monitors on the screen covering the New York ball drop. Leo was quite surprised. Had he really been out that long? 08 seemed to pass him by. 09 would be arriving in thirty seconds. Stepping into the street, nearing the crowd around the television shop on the other side, Leo attempted to get a good look at the tv screens. It didn't help that he was rather short for his age, making it considerably hard for him to see past the tall bodies of the crowd. Some of them had already started counting 2008's final seconds, while others conversed happily with each other, speaking of their resolutions for the new year, or discussing the good times they had in the past one, despite its shortcomings. Leo himself could not come up with any particularly good moments had the past year. His life was fairly monotone. Soon, the voices of the many city's citizens began to gather together resonating as they beckoned in the new year, only ten seconds away…

10... A pair of siblings were about to go on-stage for their midnight show.

9... A certain boy sifted through lines of code on his computer.

8... A young girl looked at pictures of her childhood friend.

7... A kid re-read newspaper articles about a certain child millionaire.

6... The digimon without a human continued to observe, patiently.

5... A certain digimon keeps his ears open for intriguing news.

4... A drunk driver challenges himself to get home before 09.

3... A cat-like digimon is the first to notice the car barreling down the road.

2... A wailing of horns.

1. Pain. Blood. The screeching of tires.

The road had been clear thirty seconds ago, the street Leo had been standing in was clear. The only thing he felt was the night air against his skin. Now his whole body became raked in pain as two tons of metal slammed into him. The world began to spin as he flew through the air, not completely sure what was going on. He could not feel the pain anymore. The sounds of the world became garbled, between the cheers for the new year, the alarmed cries of the citizens at the current sight, and the blaring of sirens as the police and ambulances arrived, everything mixed into one, unrecognizable noise. Leo began to feel tired. The buildings of the city became fuzzy. He shut his eyes, and passed out, the city consuming him.

Standing beside Leo, looking down upon him, unseen to the humans, Gazimon stood, wide-eyed. That didn't just happen… right?

**Digimon Zero: Chapter 1**

**Monsters of the Angel City! The Unseen Channel Zero!**

Leonard groaned, his body aching, slowly opening his eyes as he awakened from his slumber. The smell of sterilization chemicals and cheap hospital food greeted him, alerting him of where he was.

"Ah! Your awake!" A female voice spoke. Turning his head, Leo's eyes fell upon a woman in pink scrubs. Obviously a nurse.

"Yah…" He responded, lifting himself into an upright position as he did so. Sunlight was flooding through the windows. Obviously he had been out for a while "What happened?" He asked "I remember the car… and then…" The boy rubbed the back of his head. He had passed out. He remembered nothing,

"You were brought here as fast as possible." The nurse told him "Miraculously, you had very minimal injuries. You did have some minor head trauma though, which kept you knocked out for the past few days." Glancing at a calendar on a distant wall, Leo noted the date was the third. Looks like he missed new years day celebrations, not that he had anything planned. "it's a rather convenient that you woke up when you did though. Your wounds seemed to be all healed, and after we run a few checks to see that your stable, you most likely will be cleared out of here by noon, at the latest."

Nodding to his nurse, Leo watched as she left. This was when he noticed something peculiar: Something was following her. A very large, pink, bird like creature. It had looked back at him momentarily, seeming to notice that the boy had seen it, before continuing after the nurse. Strangely enough, the bird creature was not the only strange monster in the room. No, in fact there were many others. It seemed that everyone had some creature following after them. Nobody seemed to take notice though. Did nobody see them? He remembered one of the injuries the nurse had listed to him had been head trauma. Perhaps this was a result of that? Laying back down on his pillow and staring upward, he noticed something: One was hanging on the top of his bedpost, looking down at him. He had one too?

"So… head trauma, huh?" He said to it. He considered himself slightly crazy for talking to something that was most likely a figment of his imagination, but hey, nobody else was around.

"Yah." The creature responded. It was cat-like in appearance, with grey fur, large ears, and a considerably large set of claws. "You took a pretty big hit to the head when you slammed into the concrete."

"You… were there?" Leo questioned. Hey, the thing was capable of conversation after all.

"Yah. I havn't left your side since then."

"You have seriously been here for three days?" Leo couldn't help but wonder "Do I really mean that much to you?"

"You don't even know kid." The creature responded, hopping down from the top of the bedpost, and landing beside Leo. "You are very important to me, especially now that its obvious you can see me."

"Ok..." Leo responded. He couldn't help but wonder how ridiculous this was. Perhaps it was best to cut this conversation off before he got too close to this imaginary being. "Well fella, Id love to hear your life story, but Id prefer not to become buddies with you before the nurse gives me my meds and makes you dissapear..."

The cat creature obviously was not amused by this. He crossed his arms and gave Leo a foul look, before leaning inward.

"First off..." The creature said "The name is Gazimon. And second, If im a hallucination, how can I do this!"

Reaching over, Gazimon pinched Leo's arm, and Leo could feel the (very real) claws of the cat monster as they grabbed his skin and brought it together, sending signals through his nerves to let his mind know that pain was occurring.

"Ow!" Leo yelped as the monster withdrew his hand, allowing the boy to rub over the part of his arm that had been hurt. "Y... you...... How did you do that! Your not real!"

"Every bit as real as you kid." Gazimon said, his arms crossed once again as he observed the boy.

"People can't see you!" Leo argued "The nurse didn't mention how I had some freaky cat watching over me for three days!"

"Of course they cant see me!" Gazimon responded, getting annoyed with the human. "Only humans whos minds are tuned to a specific frequency are able to perceive Channel Zero. It just so happens that that bang on the head you got was just what you needed."

Frequency? Channel Zero? None of this was making any sense. It was quite a lot to just believe that he had been hit by a car, and now he was able to perceive an entirely new reality. It was impossible. Things just didn't work that way! Scientists had been trying to prove the existence of other planes of reality for years with no success, and here he was to believe he simply stumbled upon one?

Gazimon simply stood there, his arms still crossed, looking at his human as these thoughts crossed his mind. The Digimon was awaiting him to calm down, and let his usual, calm attitude take over. Of course, it was to be expected that humans would question and disbelieve their current predicament. He had heard stories of digimon who had waited months before their humans decided they wern't hallucinating. However, Leo was different, and Gazimon knew that. Leo was never one to overthink things, and Gazimon knew that. Leo was never the one who gave much worry to things, and Gazimon knew that. Gazimon knew Leo, even if Leo didn't know him. It is for this reason that when the nurse returned to the room and asked if there was anything he felt was wrong, Gazimon predicted the humans answer.

"No..." He said, giving a glance over to the cat-like monster as he had said it. "Nothing mam."

"Wonderful." The nurse responded "All of your paperwork has been filled out by your fathers secretary." Ah, Dads secretary. It figured. Leo had doubted his dad would care enough to see him personally. "I must say, your recovery was marvelous. You are free to go. It seems like you are starting the year out on the right foot!"

"Yes..." He mumbled, glancing over the monsters around him, unseen to the nurse "Perhaps I am..."

---

Sometime later, Leonard had checked out of the hospital, and the duo had walked some distance, now standing before the entrance of the Los Angeles Memorial Colosseum. As the two passed through the streets Leo could plainly see that there were many more monsters following others around. Some people had no monster beside them, however there were also monsters who didn't seem to be following a particular person. Leo surmised that these creatures were not bound to a persons side, as after seeing so many others with them, he doubted that there were people without them. The experience was so surreal to him, but he found himself accepting it. The situation was actually rather interesting...

"So..." Leo said, his arms behind his head as he leaned against the side of the colosseum. The ammount of tourists that were around would most likely pull attention away from the kid talking to himself "I assume you are going to explain all of this to me. Like what you are, and exactly what is going on here, right?"

"Eh, I suppose so..." Gazimon responded, sitting down and leaning against the colosseum wall as well "I see no reason to leave you in the dark, anyway. The world you now see is known as Channel Zero to us Digimon - Digimon being the creatures like myself that you now see - and it, and us, are comprised of the data that is sent across the airwaves from computers, cell phones, television signals, and just about any other type of electronic device you can think of." Gazimon glanced up, and Leo nodded, showing he understood up until now "This data that flows through the air has a tendancy to cling or gather around you humans, and that data manifests itself as us, digimon. We digimon go about usually unseen and unheard to all of you humans, after all, we are simply data, an invisible part of matter to you, but we exist all the same."

"Ok then, I guess I understand up till now. Its a bit far-fetched, but I get it." Leo said to his digimon "But my question is, if you guys are meant to be invisible, why can I see you? Does this happen to everyone who gets hit by a car?"

"No. Far from it, actually." Gazimon replied "Most digimon assume that the ability to perceive Channel Zero comes from an otherwise harmless mutation in a persons brain cells. In some cases, receiving head trauma like you did could theoretically stimulate the brain to produce such cells, but they can develop on their own, or humans can be born with them. Of course, this is all just speculation.

Whatever the reason though, it defiantly isnt common. Not every car accident victim comes out being able to see Channel Zero. Actually, out of the thousands upon thousands of residents in LA, its estimated that there are only a handful that can. Its a rather rare trait."

Leo nodded, but said nothing. It was kind of amazing to think that he was one of a very few amount of people who could see this place. Then again, it was kind of amazing to see that he was still believing all of this. He hadn't tried to check if he was dreaming, and he had given up the idea that possibly he was hallucinating.. Here he was, in a situation that seemed only possible in some type of fanfiction, and he had quickly adapted to accept it. He gave himself a bit of inner praise for that. Gazimon rose from his place, and motioned to Leo.

"Come on." He instructed, beginning to walk off "Ive got a couple of friends that you might want to talk to. Perhaps they can get you settled in to this new reality."

Leonard stared for a while as his digimon lead the way, but promptly continued after him.

"Friends?" He questioned inquisitively.

---

"The star-maker says it aint so bad~ The dream-makers gonna make you mad~ The spaceman says everybody look down, its all in your mind~"

"Mason!" A red-headed girl complained to her sibling. She was wearing a dark blue undershirt, with a light blue denim jacket over that, and a pair of blue jeans. "Thats gotta be like, the fifth time you've sang that song. Can't you practice something else?"

"Aw come on Mel," The boy responded, removing one of his earbuds to hear her properly. In contrast to his sibling, he was wearing a dark red undershirt, with a light red jacket over that. "I like the song. Is that a crime? Our last show went off great anyway, can't a guy get a break?"

"I think that she is a bit more annoyed by the fact you sang it five times rather then the fact your not practicing…" A third voice said, another female one. It originated from a small, bunny-like creature, wearing a small flowing dress with the image of a crescent moon upon it.

"It just so happens to be his favorite song at the moment. You know how he is. He'll have a new one by next week." Another voice added, this one coming from an orange lion-looking creature, standing on two legs, about Lunamon's size. On his head was a metal apparatus, a slight flame coming from it, and two meal wristbands around his arms, flaming as well.

"But can't he just sing it in his head then?" Melody asked the two digimon " Unlike him, I can't sit there and listen to the same song over and over again!"

The crowd at the walk of fame was a rather large one today. All of the tourists and pedestrians failed to notice the two teenagers seemingly talking to themselves. Nobody except the duo who had came to see them personally. The conversation concerning Mason's music habits continued onward between the group, until the lion monster, Coronamon, noticed one of the onlookers.

"Hey! Gazimon!" The digimon greeted, causing Lunamon and the siblings to move their attention from their conversation to the cat like digimon watching them. They didn't seem to realize that the human standing next to him was able to see him as well. "Long time no see! We thought you were gonna be helping out at our new years show! Where were ya?"

"Eh… I was running late, and had some more pressing matters to attend to…" Gazimon responded. Stepping aside, he looked over at his human, who nervously scratched the back of his head. He didn't know these guys, and he normally didn't socialize with the general public. He didn't know how to react. "Not gonna introduce yourself, huh?" Gazimon questioned "Oh well then. Guys, id like you to meet Leo…"

---

After about a half hour, Leo became more familiar with the twins and their digimon. The two of them were the heads of their own small cover band, which played small gigs every now and then to earn some extra cash. Apparently they knew Gazimon as he volunteered to be one of their bodyguards during their performances. This, however, brought a question to Leo's mind…

"Why was Gazimon helping out you guys?" He asked, and caught a nasty glance from his digimon, so he quickly added "I-I mean not that hes weak or anything… but from what ive seen today, other humans don't seem to notice other digimon, or even be effected by them… so how would having a digimon as a bodyguard help?"

The pair of twins exchanged glances with each other, and looked down at their digimon, who also exchanged looks.

"Come on bunny-boy, don't tell me you havn't told him?" Coronamon said in a mocking tone to Leo's digimon. You could practically see his veins as he cringed.

"Im a CAT." He rebutted defensively, obviously annoyed by the remark.

"…Tell me what?" Leo couldn't help but ask. Something was fishy about this. At Leo's question, Coronamon smirked, walked up to Gazimon, and gave him a large punch in the stomach. Suddenly, and without warning, Leo felt a force collide with his abdomen, and all the wind was knocked out of him. Leo held his gut in the place where he had been invisibly punched, as Gazimon was doing as well.

"Coronamon!" Melody exclaimed "What the heck was that for!"

"To show the connection between human and digimon." Coronamon replied with a smirk "As you can see, pain is shared between the digimon and human when they can perceive channel zero. Normal humans don't feel a thing when their digimon are hurt, heck, their digimon could be reformatted and they wouldn't even realize it. But for us, its quite different."

"Coronamon… Ill effing kill you…" Gazimon muttered as he regained his composure, slowly standing straight again. In unison with his digimon, Leo began to recover as well.

"Ok… makes a bit more sense now…" Leo said as his breath returned to him and the pain from the punch began to fade "But still… why get a digimon bodyguard? Its not like people come up and randomly attack your digimon… right? Please… inform me if you intend to do anything that will hurt again…"

The group turned their heads to Mason, all giving him the same look. Intimidated by their stares, he sighed, giving in.

"Use me as your sacrifice huh?" He said, and plugged his headphones back into his ears "Fine then… Gimmie a sec…" He began to scroll through the list of music on his ipod, Leo looking onward as he did. Sacrifice? What exactly did he mean? Arriving at the song he was looking for, he pressed play, and as he had done with the previous song, he began to sing. "When I was~ A young boy~ My father~ Took me into the city~ To see a marching band~"

Leo still found himself confused. What did My Chemical Romance have to do with anything? However, the boy continued to sing, rather loud, his voice standing out in the crowd. It took some time for Leo to notice, but it seemed that the singing was getting on some peoples nerves, and the odd thing was, at the same time the humans were getting upset, the digimon seemed to as well.

"Here they come…" Melody said, observing the crowd as well. Leo didn't have time to ask exactly what she meant, because soon after the words escaped her mouth, Leo heard a noise. The voice of a digimon.

"Double Backhand!" The voice called, and out of the crowd a blue whirwind zoomed forward for Coronamon. Expecting the attack, the orange lion monster jumped out of the way, avoiding what would have been damage to both him and his human. Mason continued singing as if nothing was going on, it was clear he had a trust in his partner.

"Corona Flame!" He yelled, opening his hand, flames flowing from his wristbands sending flames into his paw, forming into a fireball, which he tossed at the oncoming enemy. Upon contact with the blue whirlwind, it exploded, sending his opponent into a veil of flames. Leo watched on in amazement. Exactly what was going on here? Why was this thing attacking them? And more importantly, what was attacking them?

As the flames cleared, the creature that had attacked them was revealed to be a blue dog-like creature, standing upon two legs like Coronamon, his tail was small and curled like a shitzu's tail, and upon his hands were red boxing gloves, and around his heads was a red headband. Had Leo been looking twords Melody, he would have noticed her taking a picture of it with her cellphone camera, which would quickly identified its name to be Gaomon. There was a certain look in his eyes. One of anger, and hatred.

"Gao Rush!" The attacking digimon cried, shaking off the enemies attack and dashing forward and throwing several punches twords Coronamon, who quickly backed up to avoid each of the attacks, moving his head when needed to ensure he did not get hit. All the while Mason was still singing as if nothing was going on. Leo looked around in the crowd, to see if any of the people nearby had felt the pain from their digimon when Coronamon had attacked, but everyone seemed to continue on as if nothing had happened. The events of the invisible channel of reality went on unseen to the normal citizens of LA.

"Coro Flame!" Coronamon exclaimed, his wristbands enveloping his fist in fire, which he then used to place a well-aimed punch to the oncoming digimon gut. Gaomon cried out in pain as the punch reverberated through his body, and Coronamon prepared his follow-up attack. Flames were emitted from his headband and wristbands, coating his entire body in fire, and breaking into a charge, he plowed into Gaomon's body. Another cry of pain was emitted from the digimon, before he burst into tiny little dust-like pieces, which vanished and floated away, leaving no remains of the digimon, or any inclination it had been there. After watching the entire scene, it still made little sense to Leo, especially with the minimal knowledge of this new environment that he had.

"Wh… what the heck just happened!?" Leo said, confused. Gazimon was rather surprised, Leo seemed to have lost his usual calm twice in one day. Rather unusual for the boy. "You guys showed me that when the digimon is hurt, the human is too, right? You guys just destroyed that one! Whats happening to the human now? And why did he attack us in the first place!"

"Don't worry yourself." Lunamon said, a caring smile upon her face "That digimon's human was not synced with Channel Zero like we are. Those who aren't synced, don't share their digimon's pain."

"He should be reappearing back by his humans side, a little out of sorts, but fine." Melody continued off of her digimon "And before you go and ask, yes, I am positive that it was not the digimon of another person like us. The digimon of people like us are less prone to strike out, unless the emotions we are feeling are very strong."

"Emotions?" Leo asked, confused, but relieved that the person connected to that digimon was fine "What do you mean? Is that why that digimon attacked?"

"Ya got that right kid." Gazimon responded this time "Humans wish to get rid of things that they do not like. Just now, when Mason was singing, there were several people in the crowd that did not enjoy the song. They wanted him to shut up, but nicely enough were too kind to say it to his face."

"And that's where the digimon come in." Mason continued, taking out his earbuds again "That little dog guy attacked me, because I was doing something that his human did not like. As a defense mechanism, he attacked my digimon, fueled by his humans dislike of The Black Parade."

"And so…" Leo said, beginning to piece everything together now "That's why…"

"That's why we need some digimon help at our shows, yes." Melody finished for him "Usually we play at parties or small restaurants, and we have a fair bit of people there as our audience. Theres always a few people there who dislike our music, weather it's the song were playing itself, or if they just think we aren't doing a very faithful adaptation of it. So naturally, digimon retaliate."

"That's why I usually lend a hand." Gazimon said "Coro and Luna do a fairly good job fending off others by themselves, but it never hurts to have an extra set of claws on hand."

"And we appriciate that Gazi," Melody complimented, and was about to say something else, when her watch beeped. Looking down at it, She was fairly startled "Crap, its that late already!? Mason, we gotta get goin, mom expects us home in a half hour! Getting your games gonna have to wait till tomorrow."

"Aw, but Mel! Ive been waiting since Christmas to buy this thing!" "It'll have to wait!" She shot back to her brother, before glancing back at Leo "We've still got some things to go over. How about we meet… At the Disney Concert Hall, round two?"

"Eh, I guess…" Leo said, not really caring either way. It wasn't like he had anything going on.

"Alright then, we'll be seein ya! Come on Mason!" The brother gave a little groan of dismay and followed after his sister, their digimon in tow. "Hey Mason…" Melody asked her brother after they were a fair distance away "Did you sort of think Leo looked… familiar?"

"Sorta…" The sibling replied "I guess it was just our imagination though."

---

"You didn't tell them, huh?" Gazimon said to his partner as he watched the four others leave into the distance.

"Why should I?" Leo responded "They didn't recognize me from the media or anything. Its been a while since those adoption stories were on the news…"

"You know… there gonna find out about your money in the end."

"Yes… but Id rather keep it a secret for now… It never did any good for my relationships to talk about it…"

"But these guys aren't gonna hang out with us just because of your money!"

"How do you know?" Leo replied "Just because there like me, doesn't mean they'll overlook the fact im sitting on a mountain of money."

"…Whatever." His digimon said, giving in to his partners ignorance. He should have expected him to act like this. "Are we gonna get going home? Or do you have anything else to take care of… Leo?"

Leo wasn't listening. He was looking around the city, at the massive crowds of people, each with their own digimon beside them, completely unknown to them. It was rather weird. Three days ago, he could have died, and this whole world would go on unknown to him. It was a rather peculiar thought…"

"Leo!" Gazimon repeated, snapping his partner back into reality.

"Y…yah?" He stammered as he realized the cat was talking to him.

"We goin now?" The digimon asked. Leo nodded, and continued after him, heading back to his home. At least, he called it home…"

---

"Say… Cyrill…" A certain koala-like digimon said to his partner, his ears twitching as he received information from some of his sources, receiving quite interesting news.

"What?" The boy asked, rather uninterested.

"Its regarding Leo…" Phascomon replied "I think you'll be rather pleased…"

---END CHAPTER---


End file.
